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Wednesday, September 11, 2013
As computers have become such a big part of our everyday lives, we have grown to expect faster and faster desktops and laptops for our daily activities. One of the problems with those fast processors and hard drives is that since they have to fit more power into increasingly smaller spaces, they end up reaching very high temperatures — which if not monitored and kept under control, can play havoc with your computer. Overheating is one of the leading causes of hard drive failure. Other symptoms such as slowness, unresponsive programs and crashes and random reboots can sometimes be attributed to overheating as well.
When a processor fails, it is an expensive repair. However, when a hard drive fails, the costs of losing your data can be much, much higher. So what can you do to protect your laptop? Here are a few tools that could help you.
Real Temp
Real Temp is a comprehensive desktop or laptop computer temperature monitor that reads temperature information from all Intel Core processors and even allows you to calibrate the sensors for each individual CPU in dual- or quad-processor machines. And unlike many other sensors, it works equally well on laptops and desktops. Real Temp runs without installation being necessary. It can just be extracted to a folder or external drive and run directly from those places.
It comes preset with default max temperatures for each configuration, which can be easily adjusted; and also with an option for an alarm to go off if the temperature reaches dangerous levels.
Core Temp
Core Temp is one of the sensors that encompasses most of Intel’s and AMD’s CPUs, and it works on Windows XP Service Pack 2, 2003 Server, Vista and Windows 7 (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions). One of the useful tools includes the ability to log your information, which is very helpful when analyzing the temperature of the laptop over long periods of time and detect whether some fluctuations are normal or a sign of trouble.
SpeedFan
SpeedFan is a lightweight and reliable temperature monitor, which has the added bonus of also monitoring (as the name suggests) the speed of the fans, since they are an important part of the health of your computer.It can be set to monitor your hard drive’s temperature, the CPU temperature and the general internal temperature of the computer. SpeedFan is an interesting program that allows you to do a lot but it doesn’t work on every laptop model due to the fact that the fans on every laptop are configured differently. In some models, the temperature is available but most other functions are not. In spite of that, it does serve as a reliable monitor for the internal temperature of the computer even when some of the other features are not available; and a good detection system to warn you when certain problems arise. It can be set to run on startup and sound an alarm if the temperature gets too high.
There are many computer issues that are difficult to diagnose and correct, but thankfully, high temperatures isn’t one of them. It should be one of the things to check if you start experiencing sluggishness and hard drive errors. All it takes is a little bit of attention and one of the programs above, and the problem can be corrected before it becomes an issue.
Have you experienced overheating? What kind of symptoms did you experience? How did you fix it? Let us know by writing a comment below.
